In the sector of the preparation of injectable pharmaceutical products, the production of a machine comprising at least one magazine for a plurality of bags, syringes and bottles is well known; at least one dosing station for the preparation of a pharmaceutical product obtained by feeding into a syringe a drug taken from a bottle and a diluent taken from a bag; and a holding and transport device to transfer bags, syringes and bottles between the magazine and the dosing station.
The syringe comprises a container cylinder, a piston engaged in a sliding manner in the container cylinder, and a needle screw-fastened on one open end of the container cylinder.
Once the pharmaceutical product has been prepared inside the syringe, the needle is removed from the syringe and the open end is sealed by means of a closing cap to allow the medical personnel to handle the syringe safely.
The closing caps are screwed onto the open ends of the relevant syringes by a screwdriver assembly comprising a vibrating plate shaped to house inside it a plurality of closing caps, a pocket adapted to receive and retain the closing cap fed each time through the outlet of the vibrating plate, and a supporting device for supporting the syringes.
The pocket and the supporting device are moved with respect to each other by a roto-translatory motion so as to screw the closing cap onto the open end of the syringe.
The magazine, the dosing station, the holding and transport device, and the screwdriver assembly are housed inside a container frame provided with at least one access door.
Since the closing caps are packaged in blisters, the machines for preparing the known pharmaceutical products of the kind described above have some drawbacks mainly deriving from the fact that operations for extraction of the closing caps from the relevant blisters and loading the closing caps on the vibrating plate of the screwdriver assembly via the access door must be performed manually by the personnel in charge on the outside of the container frame and can therefore compromise the sterility of the closing caps.